Monthly Archives: October 2007

Oct 22 2007
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So what’s been going on with Gamboling?

So what’s been going on with Gamboling? A letter has literally flooded in from a Mrs Trellis of North Wales. She writes:

Dear Johnny Wilkinson,

In the end your kicking wasn’t enough, but I still like your shops.

Hmmm. So yes. There hasn’t been any writing on here for a while and that has mainly been because I’ve been busy with work, busy with home life (we’ve bought some sofas) but mainly because…

A book is born

Yes finally the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the fiction you’ve read for free online in a handy pay format.

The book is called “The book with the missing first page“

It will hopefully be available from the beginning of December.

It’s a selection of the fiction from the site. But every story has been altered at least slightly.

Oct 04 2007
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Articles

The opposite story

My good friend Larry and I were talking the other day and he was relating the story of how he had met his wife. Larry and his wife had been working together when they had fallen in love. They had decided to keep their relationship secret because it might have caused problems at work. They kept it so secret that they didn’t even tell their closest work colleagues.

At the time there was a guy that Larry had lunch with almost every day. They were very close colleagues who got on very well. But even so Larry didn’t tell him that he was seeing this woman. Then one day at a party this guy introduced Larry to somebody, the somebody that he was already living with. They had kept their relationship so secret that nobody knew. Once they moved in with each other it wasn’t such an issue telling people but Larry had never really worked out a way of telling this guy, because he had kept it from him all of this time and they were supposed to be such good friends. But right then at this party the guy found out, and since then Larry and the guy never really spoke, such was the betrayal this guy felt.

I told him that I had the opposite story. When Adrian first came to work with me we were so busy that we rarely ever got a chance to go out for lunch together – in fact it’s still pretty rare now. But one day Adrian said that we had to go out to lunch. We got to the place and sat down and Adrian told me that his wife was going to have a baby. He had, I think, only found out that day. And of course normally you don’t tell people for twelve weeks. He was bursting to tell somebody, but he said that he felt he could tell me because I didn’t really know him or any of his friends. It was quite an odd beginning to a friendship, but clearly quite a good one – we’ve been friends ever since.

Oct 01 2007
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Fiction, Short

Instructions

He walks in, flicks the light, picks up the post, puts it on the tray and closes the door behind him. He steps forward and cocks his head slightly, is she home? He walks down towards the kitchen, there is a sign on the cooker.

“Gas Mark 6”

He puts his coat on the hook on the back of the back door and turns the cooker on to Gas Mark 6. As the light comes on he can something pastry like in the oven, he wonders if it is Beef Wellington.

He looks around and notices that the fridge poetry magnets have been arranged to give him a signal.

“Openly Whine White Coldly”

He reaches into the fridge and pulls out a bottle of chilled Viognier. He goes to the side, finds the corkscrew and opens the wine. In the cupboard he selects two of their crystal glasses. And holding them in one hand, and the bottle in the other, he leaves the kitchen and heads upstairs.

The lighting is low, none of the room lights are on, just the side lights in the rooms that have them. He heads for the bedroom and finds her there. On her is a sign.

“Turn me on”